On 12/3/03 4:37 AM, in article ,
"Darkginger" > wrote:
> Next question - best way to wash bottles? I've just been scrubbing 'em under
> hot water to get the labels off, then giving them a good soak in ChemPro.
> Takes forever though, and I'm getting a bit bored with it - especially when
> I've calculated that I'll have to wash at least 120 bottles for all the wine
> I've got going on! I don't have a dishwasher (well, I do, but it's still in
> the shop - long story). Any suggestions?
I usually soak in a soap/bleach solution for a while, then peel the labels
off and clean the insides with a faucet jet bottle washer sprayer. I tend to
only use bottles that have easy to remove labels. I find most European wines
have labels that are easy to remove and most Australian and American wines
are almost permanently attached. If you have friends at a local restaurant
or bar, you could ask them to save you the French and Italian wine bottles.
But like you, I am getting tired of washing bottles. For the first time I
bought a couple cases of bottles. They were about 80 cents each, so not too
much. Much easier than trying to recycle.
>
> By the way, I thought I'd see whether I could make wine from cartons of
> grape juice (y'know, just the normal stuff for drinking) - was worried as to
> whether there might be preservatives in there - but afer 2 days of sitting
> there not doing a lot, the juice (to which I added some sugar and of course
> yeast) went nuts and bubbled up through the airlock - 3 times! It's now
> settled a bit, but is audibly hissing - looks like it's working alright! I
> just love all this experimentation - and I have to say that I'm delighted
> with the aforementioned rosehip (which is still a baby, of course) - even
> though it's so young, it tastes like a decent dry white, with not a trace of
> 'cattiness' <g>.
Sounds like it will be good.
>
> Oh, and one last question - when I tried out my new vinometer on the chilli
> wine - it came out with a reading of 22% - could this be right? I haven't
> tested any of the others, but that seems a bit high for an ordinary yeast to
> me. I have noticed that the home made stuff I've tried so far seems a lot
> more effective (ie, I get tiddly!) than the average bought wine. Is this
> normal?
I suspect your reading is not correct. 22% is awful high and even the so
called "Turbo" yeasts have difficulty achieving that level. A vinometer can
only be used on absolutely DRY wines. If you have any sugar left, the
reading will not be correct. Is your gravity below 0.995 ??
--
Greg Cook
http://homepage.mac.com/gregcook/Wine
(remove spamblocker from my email)